Sacrificial Offering

She knows me? Xialuote gave a start. She nearly sprang from the chair to burst through the door and flee, letting the carriage carry her out of the city to the cousin who was willing to help her. This was the backup plan if "turning herself in" failed. In a backward age without telephones or the internet, so long as she could charge out of the church unhindered, leaving Suxite—whose walls had long since become historic relics—would not be difficult. By the time a wanted notice spread through the city, she would already be far away. But in the end she did not move. Perhaps this lady was an Extraordinary herself, and even possessed strange but powerful abilities, as Hengli'aite did... Xialuote steadied herself and decided to watch and wait, to see what the other really wanted. Putting on a somewhat frightened look, she pressed: "How do you know my name? "Where did the priest who just heard my confession go?" "Do not be afraid, Miss Xialuote." The woman's voice was still soft and gentle. "I am a nun of Fuweier Monastery. Because your situation is rather special, the rest of Priest Kaile's work will be done by me. If you still have any details about last night that you left out, you may tell me directly." The monastery Weiyefu spoke of stood on Fuweier Mountain, southeast of Suxite. It had been built even earlier than Saint Luoke Cathedral, which likewise belonged to the Eternal Blazing Sun. The foot of the mountain joined Saint Luoke District, so only a few streets lay between the monastery and the cathedral. It was a place of retreat for the monks and nuns of the Suxite Diocese. It was said that many bishops of churches in southern Yindisi had once lived there. So Weiyefu came from that famous monastery, and was not a cleric stationed at the cathedral... But she said I was "special." What did that mean? Because I am a baron's daughter, and this may involve a disappearance, a kidnapping, or even harm of a more private kind, and so is unfit for a male cleric to know? Nobles in Suxite are few, yet I have never heard of anyone being treated differently when confessing and repenting at church... Xialuote's thoughts raced, and she quickly reached one possibility: It matched what she had guessed before. Lady Weiyefu was indeed someone the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun set apart to handle Extraordinary incidents. Everything that had happened last night, including the murders in the Old City and Aidian's death, was already in the Church's hands. Xialuote Suolun, involved in the matter, had naturally become one of the people they watched most closely. After all, even Hengli had been able to see what was special about Aidian. The Church had no reason not to know. If that was so, then even if I had not come to confess today, the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun would most likely have sent someone to my home to find me. But then, I fear, there would not have been so calm a conversation... Had Hengli foreseen this, and was that why she advised me to come to the church of my own accord? Xialuote turned the guess over. At the same time she took the sheathed dagger from the inner pocket of her coat and, after a moment's hesitation, pushed it through from beneath the partition. "And this. This dagger pierced Mr. Ma'ersuo's chest. I tried to wipe it, but the bloodstains would not wipe clean no matter what..." No sooner had she finished than several slender, pale fingers reached through the gap and took the dagger. Through the wooden board pierced with narrow slits, Xialuote could see the figure opposite lower her head and study the weapon that had killed an Extraordinary. She wanted to lean close to the partition and squint until she could make out the other's face, yet she feared meeting an eye that was peering back. She could only sit up straight in the confessional, which had fallen silent, tense and conflicted within. A moment later, Weiyefu spoke again at last: "Is that the whole of it?" Again? What kind of game was this, to see who lost their nerve? Xialuote did still have things she had not spoken. One was her greatest secret, her own transmigration. The other was Hengli'aite, whom her cousin had entrusted with helping her. If the first were exposed, she would very likely be taken for a heretic and sent to the stake. The second, because of the Church's wariness and dread of Extraordinaries among the people, might drag Hengli'aite herself down with her. So even though the cramped confessional and the other's unceasing questions pressed hard on her, she still did not speak. She only gave a large nod, so Weiyefu would see. The figure opposite went still again. Just as Xialuote thought the earlier awkward silence would go on, the partition suddenly slid aside with a clack. On the other side was a young nun, about Xialuote's height. She wore a black robe, with white cloth showing at the cuffs and collar. A white headcloth covered most of her long hair, yet a few strands of gold still fell across her brow. Beneath the blonde hair her eyebrows were fine and long, her features sharply defined, and in her jade-green eyes a faint light seemed to move. The hand that had pushed the partition open and gripped the dagger was exceedingly thin. She was so slender she seemed scarcely able to fill the heavy nun's robe. Only her chest drew the robe into a distinct curve, lifting a golden Sun Holy Emblem pinned below the collar, and naturally drew Xialuote's gaze. But that incongruity, and the loveliness of her face, did not touch the noble, sacred bearing that was Weiyefu's. Xialuote even suspected she was the daughter of some noble in Suxite, sent into a monastery to become a nun for family reasons. Such things were not rare in Yindisi. Many nobles sent older female relatives, or young women unwilling to obey the family's arrangements, into monasteries. There was even a rumor that, within the Church, nuns of noble birth had formed the "Nine Sisters Society," which called for a greater share of women among the clergy and, by expanding monasteries, almshouses, and Church hospitals, spread the doctrine of the Eternal Blazing Sun into poor regions. Yet Lady Weiyefu, striking in looks and figure and noble in bearing, did not seem like someone cast off by her family, left with no choice but to live shut away in a monastery... Xialuote looked at her once more, realized it was impolite, and that the other did not, as Hengli'aite had, leave her unwilling to look away. She raised her gaze and said clearly: "Praise the Sun." The confessional was narrow, so Weiyefu did not spread her arms either. She only inclined her head slightly and answered: "Praise the Sun." Before Xialuote could speak again, Weiyefu quickly set down the dagger, brought out a heavy volume with a sheepskin cover from beneath the partition, and laid it on the platform between them. The four corners of the book and its thick spine were all clad in gold. At the center of the cover was a Sun Holy Emblem made of a golden disc and lines drawn segment by segment. It was a holy canon of the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun. But Xialuote noticed dark blotches along the edges of the pages facing her, as if some liquid had soaked the paper and welled out. It isn't blood, is it... Having seen too much blood the night before, she thought this without meaning to, and for a moment could not tell why the other had set the holy canon out. Fortunately, her puzzlement did not last long. Weiyefu pushed the dark-stained holy canon forward, turned it halfway around so the golden Sun Holy Emblem faced this side, pressed her right hand to the cover, and said with a smile: "Miss Xialuote, if you believe that, in the matter of last night, you have hidden nothing from the deity or from me, please press your right hand to the holy canon as I am doing, and repeat this sentence. "Be at ease. This is only to prove your honesty to the deity. It will not cause any... harm." "The more you stress it, the more worried I am..." Xialuote grumbled inwardly. On Earth there was a similar custom of swearing with a hand on the Bible, but everyone knew it was real if you believed and nothing if you did not. No deity actually sent down punishment. In this world, though, Extraordinary power truly existed. Even without deities, an Extraordinary might possess some ability to "detect lies." Refusing now would certainly make Weiyefu suspicious, and Hengli'aite, an Extraordinary herself, had not stopped Xialuote from coming to the church for help the night before. After only an instant's hesitation, she braced herself, put out her right hand, and pressed her palm to the surface of the holy canon. "In what happened last night, in the matters concerning Aidian Ma'ersuo and what I encountered last night, I have hidden nothing from the deity or from Lady Weiyefu." She spoke the oath in a form that favored her, then added a safeguard. "...except for the part of my memory I have forgotten." At the same time she felt the cover against her palm begin to grow warm. The heat was not high. It stayed between warm and faintly hot, like washing water a little too warm. Did that mean she had passed, or not? Should she tell her what she felt? Xialuote looked again at Weiyefu's sharply defined face and fair skin, only to see her smile faintly and say: "How fortunate. It seems everything you told is the truth." Fortunate... Xialuote hastily lifted her palm. The holy canon beneath it was unchanged from a moment before. Puzzled, she asked: "If I had lied, what would have happened?" "The holy canon would grow hot, and so would your body. How far it went would depend on how grave the tested person's lie was, and on what share of the oath it occupied... Of course, it is not usually fatal." As she spoke, Weiyefu reached out and took the holy canon back. The instant both hands touched the cover, her expression shifted a little. Beneath the headcloth an unnatural flush rose in her face, and her body trembled. She breathed out a mouthful of scorching air, then quickly set the holy canon beneath the partition. Those uncanny signs subsided. A smile returned to her face as she looked at Xialuote and said: "Since you have proved you held nothing back, I ought to tell you something you would want to know. For instance... do you know what happened in the Old City last night?" "I heard my father say there was more than one murder there." Xialuote frowned and put on a frightened look, like an ordinary girl. "I came to the Church for help precisely because I was afraid Aidian was connected to it." Weiyefu nodded. "I thought as much. That you could act as you did already puts you ahead of the great majority of survivors in affairs of this kind. Many of them, out of fear, dare not tell anyone, and even imagine that fleeing to another city and cutting off their old ties will spare them whatever follows." That was exactly what I had been thinking... Xialuote was taken aback for a moment. At last she understood more deeply what Hengli had said the night before. Then, as if to draw the other on, she asked: "Was there something else behind the murders last night?" Weiyefu looked at her long and hard. The lifted corners of her mouth pressed slightly together, and she answered in a grave voice: "Late last night, the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun, the Craftsman Church, and the garrison of Suxite wiped out a secret organization that worshipped an evil existence, and stopped a living human sacrifice already underway. Most of the believers died in the operation. A few had already offered their own lives, by sacrificing themselves, to the existence they worshipped. "Besides that, seven corpses of victims meant for living sacrifice were found at the scene. But according to our investigation and analysis... "The victims originally meant to be used as sacrificial offerings numbered eight in all."